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Perry’s Texas Has Highest Percentage Of Minimum Wage Jobs In The Nation
By Pat Garofalo posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Jun 16, 2011 at 5:45 pm
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has been making some noise about potentially entering the 2012 Republican presidential race, and if he chooses to throw his hat into the ring, it’s quite clear that he will point to Texas’ economy as one of his credentials. “In Texas, you don’t have to use your imagination, saying, ‘What’ll happen if we apply this or that conservative principle?’” Perry said earlier this week. “You just need to look around, because they’ve been in play across our state for years, generating real results like unmatched job creation, more exports than any other state and a balanced budget.”
That Perry has a stellar record on job creation is simply not true. As the Austin American-Statesman noted, “while the national unemployment rate is 9.1 percent and the Texas unemployment rate is 8 percent, some 23 states, including New York, have lower unemployment rates.” In addition, “jobs grew at about the same rate during Democrat Ann Richards’ four years as governor” as they have under Perry.
Between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than they did in Texas, and “Texas has done worse than the rest of the country since the peak of national unemployment in October 2009.” But as it turns out, Texas is leading the nation in one employment metric — the number and percentage of minimum wage jobs:
Additionally, Texas has by far the largest number of employees working at or below the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour in 2010) compared to any state, according to a BLS report. In 2010, about 550,000 Texans were working at or below minimum wage, or about 9.5 percent of all workers paid by the hour in the state. Texas tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers…From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers in Texas rose from 221,000 to 550,000, an increase of nearly 150 percent.
The Texas Independent added, “the median hourly earnings for all Texas workers was $11.20 per hour in 2010, compared to the national median of $12.50 per hour.”
In addition to these facts that Perry would surely prefer stay under the radar, he relied more on the 2009 Recovery Act than any other governor and faced a $27 billion budget deficit for the 2012-2013 budget, after assuring everyone for months that Texas had its fiscal house in order.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: Texas tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers…
that's why we have the blues
Well what else do you expect when you border Mexico? You think they are going to offer higher wages to people hopping the border?
Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
But Texas is anti-illegal immigration cash...surely THEY don't give jobs to border hoppers! They're TEXANS!
-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues. Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
Could one get in trouble shooting or killing an illegal in the US and then throwing the body over the fence, or wade the body back across the Rio Grande?
Where does the law come in here?
-------------------- Buy Low. Sell High. Posts: 10755 | From: The Land Of The Giants | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: Texas tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers…
that's why we have the blues
Well what else do you expect when you border Mexico? You think they are going to offer higher wages to people hopping the border?
MS doesn't have border with Texas, nor do we have a large immigration populaion. Illegals go where there's jobs.
It is interesting to note that the (advertised) number of unemployed Americans seems steady at around 14 million compare that the (advertised) number of illegal in the US at 11 million....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Perry ignored Strayhorn back in '06--and now it's even worse than *she* projected:
quote:Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn did not win friends five years ago when she warned Gov. Rick Perry and state lawmakers they were writing the “largest hot check in Texas history” during a tax overhaul that resulted in lower property taxes and a revised business tax.
Strayhorn told them their plan would fall about $23 billion short over a five-year period. Five years later, state leaders are staring at an estimated budget shortfall of nearly $27 billion over the next two years.
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